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Henry Gassaway Davis and West Virginia Senator Stephen B. Elkins carve up a “West Va” turkey. On the wall is a sign that reads, “West Va. is ours.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-02
West Virginia Senator Stephen B. Elkins holds onto a woman labeled “West Virginia.” Henry Gassaway Davis looks at the woman as he wears a fancy suit and a “West VA daisy” and says, “I want you mah honey, yes I do!”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-07-17
This newspaper article includes a number of cartoons and photographs about “railroad rate legislation.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-01-07
A number of men are in a “railroad rate bill” train car, including President Roosevelt, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, South Carolina Senator Benjamin R. Tillman, West Virginia Senator Stephen B. Elkins, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Iowa Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Texas Senator Joseph W. Bailey, Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, and Wisconsin Senator John C. Spooner. Some of them hold “amendment” cards. Caption: Engineer Roosevelt—”Who’s running this train, anyhow?”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03-24
President Roosevelt, West Virginia Senator Stephen B. Elkins, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Iowa Representative William Peters Hepburn, and Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich all stir a “R.R. rates bill” soup in a pot shaped like the United States Capitol building.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-02-19
In one vignette, David B. Hill jumps into a “Wolfert’s Roost” tree with a sign that reads, “I really couldn’t wait until Jan. 1.” In the second, “the silent voter” sphinx shouts, “Roosevelt!” from a megaphone as Alton B. Parker runs away. In a third vignette, Chair of the Republican National Committee George B. Cortelyou tells Chair of the Democratic National Committee Thomas Taggart, “Kindly make allowances for me, Tom, as this was my first campaign.” In the fourth, President Roosevelt looks at a Republican elephant who holds a scroll that reads, “339 + electoral votes.” The elephant says, “Theodore, you’ve established a hard record for me to keep up with.” In the fifth, Henry Gassaway Davis opens a fence as West Virginia Senator Stephen B. Elkins rushes toward him and says, “Welcome home, pop!” In the sixth, Williams Jennings Bryan looks at a piecemeal donkey and says, “I guess there’s enough to work on.” In the seventh, “Southern democracy” looks at the shoes of “Northern democracy” stuck in a snowdrift and says, “Nothin’ but de feet!” In the eighth, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon looks through binoculars and says, “Wanted! A few minority members for House committees.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-13
A number of Republican and Democratic politicians play a game of baseball while large crowds look on. President Roosevelt is the pitcher while Charles W. Fairbanks is the catcher. The “voter” stands at the “White House” home base while Alton B. Parker tries to run to home base. Thomas Taggart tells Parker, “Get ready to slide, Judge.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-11
Clipping of an article about Senate proceedings regarding the Interstate Commerce Commission and Senator Benjamin R. Tillman and Senator Shelby M. Cullom’s options towards it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-25
Telephone message from Senator Albert J. Beveridge, stating that “Sen [Nathan Bay] Scott has stated to Sen [Stephen B.] Elkins that the President told him he did not care anything about the standard bill.” Beveridge wishes Roosevelt would “straighten Sen Scott out.” Beveridge also wants President Roosevelt to see Senator Boies Penrose and encourage him to act further.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-02-15
A large female figure holds a cornucopia labeled “Prosperity 1895,” floating toward rays of light that illuminate industrial facilities. She hovers above a group of men gathered around a platform with a banner that states, “Protection Issue and Victory in 1896.” Several of the men are shaking their fists at her. Among those identified by name and unidentified are “Hoar, Elkins, Tom Reed, Lodge, [and] Hale,” and William B. Allison, possibly Thomas C. Carter, John Sherman, Joseph B. Foraker, William McKinley, Benjamin Harrison, William E. Chandler, Whitelaw Reid labeled “Tribune of N.Y.,” Charles A. Boutelle, and Matthew S. Quay.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1895-10-09
A group of men, scoffers, labeled “Tillman, Elkins, Penrose, Crane, Lodge, Depew, Gallinger, Aldrich, [and] Sherman” watch four men labeled “Cummins, Dolliver, Gore, [and] La Follette” construct an ark labeled “Principle.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-07-28
A fire at the Treasury Building is billowing clouds of smoke labeled “Deficit.” Nelson W. Aldrich is the fire chief, and he is telling firefighters Stephen B. Elkins, Joseph Gurney Cannon, Sereno Elisha Payne, and Jacob H. Gallinger to send a fire engine labeled “Lower Tariff” back to the station. President William H. Taft and Elihu Root carry a large fire extinguisher labeled “Corporation Tax” and race up the steps of the building, attempting to extinguish the blaze. Caption: Chief Aldrich (at the great Treasury blaze) — Send that engine home! We’ll put her out with the extinguisher!
Udo J. Keppler’s cartoon, for all its drama while debates over tariff legislation were raging in the Capital, betrays a certain ambiguity. Editorially, Puck frequently through the years occasionally was ambiguous about its position on tariffs and trusts. So were the political parties, despite the Republicans (who received the cartoonist’s attention here) generally being the party of big business and high tariffs. President Roosevelt had begun to warm to the concept of “fair trade” and reciprocal trade agreements, on a country-to-country basis. Such concepts would be strongly advocated by President William H. Taft, particularly with the Philippines; and famously with Canada. He was to stake — and lose — much of his political capital, urging Canadian reciprocity.
The ambiguity inherent in this cartoon rests in the position of the Republican leader of the Senate, Nelson W. Aldrich, who was then shaping the tariff bill (Payne-Aldrich) under consideration. In the cartoon he rejects the use of low-tariff water to extinguish the federal deficit, and urges instead higher corporate taxes — both concepts purportedly anathemas, or at least counter-intuitive, to Republican orthodoxy.
Stephen B. Elkins walks down an aisle in the “U.S. Senate,” holding a “Certificate of Election to U.S. Senate – Stephen B. Elkins.” Seated on the left are “Teller – Senator on Cash Basis” and “Smith,” and seated on the right are “Brice – Senator by Grace of Boodle” and “Jones Bonanza Senator.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1895-01-23
Republican politicians wearing Roman togas are seated around a banquet table with a skeleton that is holding a standard labeled “McKinley’s Shaky Financial Record.” Gathered around the table are John “Sherman,” Stephen B. “Elkins,” Russell A. “Alger,” Charles H. “Grosvenor,” William “McKinley,” Mark A. “Hanna,” Christopher L. “Magee,” William M. “Hahn,” Joseph B. “Foraker,” Cornelius N. “Bliss,” Herman H. “Kohlsaat,” Edward Oliver “Wolcott,” and Whitelaw “Reid.” Caption: The ancient custom of the Romans of seating a skeleton at their banquet-tables, to remind them of death, is now being revived by our Republican friends.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-06-10
A chef labeled “Special Privilege” holds a large platter on which rests a huge turkey with the face of Theodore Roosevelt. He is about to place the platter on a table around which sit several men labeled “Cannon, Rockefeller, Archbold, Haskell, Payne, Dalzell, Elkins, Sherman, Foraker, Harrimen, Day, Rogers” and Nelson W. Aldrich.
The “Teddy-Turk” cartoon by Udo J. Keppler in Puck was the magazine’s strongest — in fact one of its only — comments on the election just concluded.
It is a tribute to President Roosevelt’s power and influence that Puck‘s post-mortem commentary would neither mention nor portray the candidates in the late campaign, president-elect William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan. Neither is there a mention of any issues of the campaign… beyond Puck‘s targeted enemy of both parties and all citizens, “Special Privilege.”
A large group of members of the Fifty-fourth Congress are pictured. Many are dressed as natives, with some wearing grass skirts. Most are armed with spears or clubs, while some have shields. Four are reading the “Reminiscences of John Sherman,” one turns the crank on a spit where John Bull is being roasted, and Thomas B. Reed is standing on a platform on the left. A statue labeled “Jingoism” appears at center. Grover Cleveland appears in effigy with several spears or arrows stuck in him. Joseph G. Cannon sits on the floor on the right.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-05-27
President Roosevelt, as a hurdy-gurdy player, grinds an organ labeled “Party Harmony” among a group of bears labeled “Elkins, Parsons, Dick, Platt, Penrose, Woodruff, Foraker, Barnes, [and] Odell,” each holding a large club across their shoulders.
“The Boss Bear Trainer” is a rare cartoon from the career of President Roosevelt wherein bears are cartooned characters, but related to teddy bears, either as hunting trophies or as children’s plush toys.
Udo J. Keppler here depicted Roosevelt as an Italian organ grinder making trained bears dance. A frequent sight on urban street corners of the day were beggars who attracted people with organ-grinder music to which bears danced. For safety’s sake the bears usually were muzzled and restrained.
President Taft balances a cone of papers, labeled “Administration” and showing the Republican elephant, on his nose. Struggling to get in the cone is “Ballinger” while already inside are “Elkins, Hitchcock, Wickersham, C. Taft, Crane, Dalzell, Cannon, Payne (holding on to a large question mark labeled “Tariff”), Aldrich, [and] Sherman.” Rolled-up papers in the cone are labeled “Standpat Legislation” and “Cost of Living Investigation.” Also in the cone, a dog labeled “Regulars” and a cat labeled “Insurgents” are fighting.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-08-31
A wave labeled “Republican Voters’ Revolt” crashes into the dining room of a ship where “Cannon, Payne, Taft, Knox, Sherman, Root, Aldrich, Woodruff, Dalzell, Crane, Wickersham, Lodge, Parsons, Hitchcock, Depew, Hale, Elkins, Ballinger, Smoot, Penrose, [and] Cox” are dining, and upsets a dish of “Party Plums,” as well as a bottle of “Stalwart Grog.” Caption: “We were crowded in the cabin, / Not a soul would dare to sleep; / It was midnight o’er the waters, / And a storm was on the deep.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-04-20
A comet labeled “Allds Investigation” strikes a planet labeled “Albany Legislature,” causing it to explode among planets labeled “Aldrich, Penrose, Payne, Vreeland, Dalzell, Cannon, Hitchcock, Woodruff, Ballinger, Root, Platt, Depew, Parsons, Sherman, Bliss, Black, Cortelyou, Odell, Lodge, Hale, [and] Elkins.” A lone planet showing the face of Theodore Roosevelt hovers on the far right. Caption: A comet that has cut loose in the Republican constellation.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-03-09